Community Mass Care Management | Emergency Management Operations Course | Incident Command System/Emergency Operations Center Interface |
Emergency Planning and Special Needs Population | Debris Management Course | Managing People in Disasters | Workshop: Local Situation (RAPID) Assessment | Workshop in Emergency Management: Asking for Help | Workshop in Emergency Management: Working Through a Disaster for Front Line Employees | Hazardous Weather and Flood Preparedness | Warning Coordination | EOC Management and Operations Course | Resource Management Course | Donations Management Workshop | Public Information Officer | Mitigation Planning Workshop for Local Government | Who's in Charge Here? Exercising Leadership in and Emergency or Disaster | Evacuation and Re-Entry Planning Course | Comprehensive Emergency Management Planning for Schools | Mass Fatalities Incident Response | Mitigation for Emergency Managers | Incident Command System Overview for Executives/Senior Officials |
Homeland Security for Local Governments | Professional Development Series

FEMA Emergency Management Institute

State-offered Training Courses

If your jurisdiction is interested in hosting one of these free training programs, contact your Homeland Security/Emergency Management Field Representative or call Roy Nieder, Program Coordinator at (603) 271-2661 x 125.

Course Name: G108 Community Mass Care Management

Description: This 2-day course is intended to equip emergency management staff and voluntary agency personnel with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform as effective mass care coordinators in a broad range of disaster situations. The course covers how to size up mass care needs; how to plan for mass care; recruitment, training, and exercises for mass care personnel; and actions to take in short-term and long-term mass care operations.

Target Audience: State, tribal and local government emergency management and voluntary agency personnel who are involved with mass care assistance.

Course Name: G110 Emergency Management Operations Course

Description: This course is designed for local communities or tribal governments that may not be able to participate

in FEMA’s resident Integrated Emergency Management courses. The EMOC is an exercise-based program with planning sessions that begin weeks prior to the actual course, and it includes classroom sessions and exercises. The flexible format of the course allows it to be conducted in a 2½-day or 3-day format. The purpose of the course is to improve operational capabilities as they relate to managing emergencies in the local community. The course places emphasis on the EOC as a focal point for managing a simulated emergency.

Selection Criteria: Elected and appointed city and county officials. These include mayor, city manager, city council, county commissioner, county manager, and other key positions, such as emergency management director and PIO. Also included as eligible participants are upper- and middle management personnel, including supervisory, operational, and communications staff from the fire service, law enforcement, public works, and EMS. Volunteer groups also should participate.

Course Name: G191 Incident Command System/Emergency Operations Center (ICS/EOC) Interface

Description: This 1-1/2 day course works best when delivered to incident command system and emergency operations center personnel from the same community. The course provides an opportunity for participants to begin developing an ICS/EOC interface for their community. The course reviews ICS and EOC responsibilities and functions and depends heavily on exercises and group discussions to formulate the interface.

Target Audience: Participants should be made up of incident command system and emergency operations center personnel.

Course Name: G197 Emergency Planning and Special Needs Population

Description: This 2 1/2-day course is intended to provide those with responsibilities for providing emergency planning or care of seniors, people with disabilities and/or special needs groups with the skills and knowledge they will need to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergency situations.

Target Audience: Emergency managers, senior first responder personnel, special needs coordinators, human service organization personnel, facility planners, and any others that might be involved in any way with the planning or provision of emergency care.

Course Name: G202 Debris Management Course

Description: This 2-day course is designed for state and local personnel with an overview of issues and recommended actions necessary to plan for, respond to, and recover from a major debris generating event.

Target Audience: All people who perform emergency management functions.

Course Name: G249 Managing People in Disasters: A Local Perspective

Description: This course is aimed at preparing people to step in to manage and supervise in chaotic and stressful crisis situations. The package of skills offered in this course should enable an emergency manager to shift from managing a normal office environment to supervising an expanded staff in rapidly changing conditions. Major topics include communicating, community relationships, leadership, managing staff, teams, and managing the work.

Target Audience: Anyone who performs emergency management work.

Course Name: G250.7 Workshop: Local Situation (RAPID) Assessment

Description: Workshop in rapid assessment of local situation after an incident to enable a community to prioritize response activities, allocate scarce resources, and request mutual aid and State and Federal assistance quickly. This course is taught in conjunction with G 270.1.

Target Audience: Local government emergency managers.

Course Name: G270.1 Workshop in Emergency Management: Asking for Help

Description: These videotape and facilitator guides are designed to promote local officials’ awareness of effective approaches for requesting government assistance during and immediately after disasters. Recent disasters have shown that many local officials are unsure of the size, amount, location, and type of resources needed.

Target Audience: Local government emergency managers.

Course Name: G270.6 Workshop in Emergency Management:

Working Through a Disaster for Front Line Employees

Description: This 1-day workshop provides front-line local government employees with an improved ability to plan

for and cope with the problems of working through and recovering from disasters.

Selection Criteria: Local government emergency managers and response and recovery personnel.

Course Name: G271 Hazardous Weather and Flood Preparedness

Description: The National Weather Service (NWS) and FEMA developed this course with input from many states and local emergency managers. It is intended to help to promote a more proactive response to weather and flooding hazards through close coordination between emergency management and NWS.

This course covers:

• How the basic elements of weather can combine to create potential hazards in an area
• Weather forecast products and how to interpret them

And anticipating hazardous weather for planning, warning, and response purposes.

Course Name: G272 Warning Coordination

Description: This 1½ day course is the latest in the hazardous weather series produced in partnership with the National Weather Service. Topics include: The Social Dimensions of Warning Response, Developing Effective Warning Messages, Developing an Effective Community Warning Process, and working with the media to create a Weather Warning Partnership.

Course Name: G275 Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Management and Operations Course

Description: This 3-day course provides participants with the knowledge and skills to effectively manage and operate an EOC during crisis situations. The course covers many aspects of properly locating and designing an EOC, how to staff, train, and brief EOC personnel, and how to operate an EOC during various situations.

Target Audience: State and local individuals responsible for developing, staffing, managing, and operating an EOC. Other EOC staff is encouraged to attend.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of IS-275, The Emergency Operations Center Role in Community Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Operations is recommended.

Course Name: G276 Resource Management Course

Description: This 2-day course provides participants with the knowledge and skills to effectively identify, develop, and manage a resource management system. The course covers aspects of how to tap into little used resources, how to develop and manage a system to better manage scarce public and private sector resources in a crises situation, and how to ask for help (the videotape and facilitator’s guide for G 270.1 has been incorporated into this course).

Target Audience: State and local individuals responsible for effectively developing and managing a resource management system within the ICS or EOC.

Course Name: G288 – Donations Management Workshop

Description: This 8 to 12 hour workshop addresses the planning considerations and operational requirements for an effective donations management system at the State and/or local level. A special emphasis is put on the importance of collaborative partnership between State/local government and voluntary agencies as the key to success in donations management.

Selection Criteria: Local government officials or State and local leaders of key voluntary organizations (i.e., those affiliated with the State VOAD), who have responsibility for planning, coordinating, implementing, and/or operating the donations management function at the State and local level.

Course Name: G290 Basic Public Information Officer

Description: This 2½-day course is intended for the new or less experienced PIO. Its emphasis is on the basic skills and knowledge needed for emergency management public information activities. Topics include the role of the PIO in emergency management, conducting awareness campaigns, news release writing, and television interviews.

Selection Criteria: Emergency management personnel, including fire and law enforcement that have either full- or part-time responsibilities for public information in their communities or departments. Individuals with considerable experience in public information may want to consider applying for a waiver to attend the Advanced Public Information Officers (E388) course at EMI.

Course Name: G318 Mitigation Planning Workshop for Local Government

Description: This 2-day workshop discusses the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, which amends the Robert T, Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act by, among other things, adding a new section. 322-Mitigation Planning. This workshop assists representatives of local communities or multi-jurisdictional planning areas to develop a mitigation plan that meets the community’s needs as well as Section 322 local government planning requirements as described in 44 CFR Section 201.6. This planning workshop explains each of the requirements, demonstrates how FEMA’s new Mitigation Planning How-to-Guide can be used to address each requirement, and provides opportunities to begin the planning process in group activities.

Target Audience: Representatives of local government: elected officials, managers, planners, emergency program managers, and other staff. The workshop is also intended for community members interested in avoiding or minimizing hazard losses, who may wish to participate in the mitigation planning process.

Course Name: G351 Who’s in Charge Here? : Exercising Leadership in and Emergency or Disaster

Description: The purpose of this 6-hour course is to prepare local elected government officials to lead and direct their jurisdiction in implementing comprehensive emergency management systems. At the conclusion of the course, participants will be able to:

• exercise greater leadership in an emergency through a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities;
• develop emergency management policies and procedures for emergency management activities and implement necessary policies and procedures to respond to and recover from a disaster;
• initiate appropriate emergency management actions during a disaster;
• negotiate through the intergovernmental response system to obtain the required resources and assistance in an emergency;
• maximize gains for disaster recovery assistance through appropriate contacts and knowledge of available resources;
• understand the partnership among Federal, State, and local governments;
• establish relationships and partnerships with other agencies and organizations (i.e., profit, not-for-profit, and business and industry) for effective emergency management response and recovery outcomes; and
• take actions to ensure citizen satisfaction during a disaster and build credibility before a disaster.

Selection Criteria: Local elected officials (i.e., mayors, etc.).

Course Name: G358 Evacuation and Re-Entry Planning Course

Description: This 12-hour course is designed to provide participants with the knowledge and skills needed to design and implement an evacuation and re-entry plan for their jurisdiction. It uses a community’s vulnerability analysis and evacuation plan. It also addresses evacuation behavior and recommends methods to make evacuation and re-entry more efficient.

Course Name: G362 Comprehensive Emergency Management Planning (CEMP) for Schools

Description: This course is designed to help participants recognize the need to plan for all types of disaster. Since planning is a process, planning is included in every unit and activity. Participants completing the course will be able to explain the importance of a school emergency management program to others and to lead individuals in their schools and community through the process of developing and effective multi-hazard plan.

Target Audience: Anyone involved with their community’s school emergency planning program.

Course Name: G386 Mass Fatalities Incident Response

Description: This course prepares local and state response personnel and other responsible agencies and professionals to handle mass fatalities effectively and to work with the supervisors in an emergency or disaster.

Target Audience: The course is designed for a wide audience, encompassing the range of personnel with a role to play in a mass fatality incident. Coroners, medical examiners, funeral directors, heads of response agencies (fire, police, EMS, etc.), planner and emergency management coordinators will benefit from this course.

Course Name: G393 Mitigation for Emergency Managers

Description: This workshop is designed to train emergency managers and other interested individuals who have no specialized technical background, but can support mitigation efforts as advocates. The workshop provides activities and exercises that build the participants’; abilities to: perform the tasks and responsibilities of the emergency manager’s role; create long-term strategies for disaster-resistant communities; identify local mitigation opportunities; select mitigation solutions to hazard risk problems; find resources to carry out mitigation activities in a post-disaster environment.

Target Audience: All personnel at the state or local level involved with any phase of mitigation.

Course Name: G402 Incident Command System Overview for Executives/Senior Officials

Description: The purpose of this 2 hour course is to provide an orientation to the Incident Command System (ICS) for

Executives and Senior Officials (including elected officials, city/county managers, agency administrators, etc.).

Course Name: G408 Homeland Security for Local Governments

Description: This course teaches participants to evaluate, revise, or develop a homeland security appendix to their jurisdiction’s existing Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). The course addresses such key issues as vulnerability analysis and command and control for homeland security events.

Target Audience: Local emergency planning teams that include one person from emergency management, law enforcement, fire service, public health/medical service. State personnel involved with assisting local planners are also encouraged to participate.

Course Name: Professional Development Series

Description: The Professional Development Series includes seven Emergency Management Institute independent study courses that provide a well-rounded set of fundamentals for those in the emergency management profession. Many students build on this foundation to develop their careers. These courses are available online at EMI’s website as independent study programs or in a classroom setting. The time listed below in brackets ( ) is the time allotted for the classroom presentation.

Students who complete all the courses will receive a PDS Certificate of Completion from FEMA. The courses, in recommended order of completion, are:

IS-230 Principles of Emergency Management (20 hours)
Understanding the fundamental principles and practices of emergency management provides a framework for the future professional growth of every emergency manager and responder. This course is designed to provide a basic framework of understanding of emergency management in the following areas:

• Overview of the Integrated Emergency Management System
• The emergency management cycle
• The Plan as program centerpiece
• Planning and coordination
• Functions of an emergency management program
• Emergency management program participants
• Applying emergency management principles

IS-235 Emergency Planning (16 hours)
Being able to use all the basic elements of the planning process gives emergency managers, planners and other stakeholders a basis for working together to shape the community’s disaster response to all types of hazards and problems. This course is designed to prepare planners to use the standard terminology and concepts of a properly structured Emergency Operations Plan in the following areas:

• The planning process
• Hazard analysis
• The basic Plan
• Annexes and appendices
• Implementing instructions

IS-242 Effective Communication (16 hours)
Being able to communicate effectively is a necessary and vital part of the job of every emergency manager, planner, and responder. This course is designed to improve your communication skills. It addresses:

• Basic communication skills
• How to communicate in an emergency
• How to identify community-specific communication issues
• Using technology as a communication tool
• Effective oral communication
• How to prepare an oral presentation

IS-241 Decision Making and Problem Solving (8 hours)
Being able to make decisions and solve problems effectively is a necessary and vital part of the job for every emergency manager, planner, and responder. This course is designed to improve your decision-making skills. It addresses:

• The decision-making process
• Decision-making styles
• Attributes of an effective decision maker
• Ethical decision making and problem solving

IS-240 Leadership and Influence (16 hours)
Being able to lead others – to motivate them to commit their energies and expertise to achieving the shared mission and goals of the emergency management system – is a necessary part of the job for every emergency manager, planner and responder. This course is designed to improve your leadership and influence skills. It addresses:

• Leadership from within
• How to facilitate change
• How to build and rebuild trust
• Using personal influence and political savvy
• Fostering an environment for leadership development

IS-244 Developing and Managing Volunteers (16 hours)
This course is for emergency managers and related professionals working with all types of volunteers and coordinating with voluntary agencies. The course provides procedures and tools for building and working with voluntary organizations. Topics include:

• Benefits and challenges of using volunteers
• Building a volunteer program
• Writing job descriptions
• Developing volunteers through recruitment, placement, training, supervision and evaluation
• Coordinating with voluntary agencies and community-based organizations
• Special issues including spontaneous volunteers, liability, and stress

IS-139 Exercise Design (24 hours)
Emergency managers, emergency services personnel, and individuals who are part of the emergency preparedness and response communities at all levels need to be able to use the fundamentals of exercise simulation and design as an integrated system of resources and capabilities. This course is designed to develop their exercising skills in the following areas:

• Comprehensive exercise program
• The exercise process
• Exercise design steps
• Tabletop, Functional, and Full-scale exercises
• Exercise evaluation
• Exercise enhancements
• Designing a Functional exercise

Complete List of Fire Academy Forms